Ambassador Clapp is a retired Minister-Counselor in the U.S. Foreign
Service. She is currently engaged in foreign policy analysis and
community service with several institutions.

During her 30-year
career with the U.S. Government, Ambassador Clapp served as Chief of
Mission at the US Embassy in Burma (1999-2002), Deputy Chief of Mission
in the US Embassy in South Africa (1993-96), Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Refugee Programs (1989-1993), Deputy Political
Counselor in the US Embassy in Moscow (1986-88), and chief of
political-military affairs in the US Embassy in Japan (1981-85). She
also worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, in its East
Asian, Political Military, and International Organizations Bureaus, and
with the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She speaks Russian,
Japanese, French, and some Burmese.

Prior to government service,
Ambassador Clapp spent ten years in foreign policy and arms control
research, under contract to the MIT Center for International Studies and
as a research associate at the Brookings Institution. She is a member
of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for
Strategic Studies. Her books include: with Morton Halperin,
Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy (Brookings, 2006), with
I.M.Destler et al., Managing an Alliance: the Politics of U.S.-Japanese
Relations (Brookings, 1976), with Morton Halperin, U.S.-Japanese
Relations in the 1970's (Harvard, 1974). She is the author of numerous
publications on Burma and U.S. Burma policy with the US Institute of
Peace, the Brookings Institution, the East-West Center, Australia
National University, and others. She was a major contributor to the
Asia Society’s 2010 Task Force Report on Options for U.S. Burma Policy.

The VMI experience is framed by relevant education within a military environment. It’s an education that develops character, fosters a lifelong appreciation of physical fitness,engenders a sense of responsibility to others, and cultivates
the ability to master adversity.